Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ENLIGHTENme (Innovative policies for improving citizens’ health and wellbeing addressing indoor and outdoor lighting)
Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-02-29
A major, albeit underestimated, by-product of urbanization is the exponential increase of human exposure to artificial light. Outdoor illumination, artificial sky glow, domestic lighting, light-emitting screens, etc. entrain circadian clock. Despite scientific evidence on the pathogenic role of circadian rhythms disruption in predisposing to non-communicable diseases, affecting sleep, metabolism, immune function and many aspects of behavior and mood, EU cities are mostly focusing on improving lighting services’ efficiency, reducing costs and emissions, but failing to consider lighting impacts on health and wellbeing.
ENLIGHTENme will collect and systematize existing data and good practices on urban lighting and will perform an accurate study on the correlations among health, wellbeing, lighting and socio-economic factors in 3 pilot cities -Amsterdam, Bologna and Tartu, where a target district will be selected due to its exposure to artificial light and to reflect social inequalities. Through the establishment of Lighting Urban Labs within the district, citizens and stakeholders will co-create innovative Lighting Urban Plans measures and define the implementation of a smart outdoor lighting system and indoor lighting changes in a pilot area within the district. There, a population-based study on elderly – addressed as a vulnerable group particularly prone to suffer circadian misalignment – will allow to assess lighting-dependent risks on mental and health conditions and surveys involving the overall district population and users will allow assess the impacts of urban lighting on quality of life and wellbeing.
The results will allow to develop a dedicated Decision Support System and guidelines and recommendation on the impact of lighting on health and wellbeing, proposing innovative lighting policies, measures, technologies and interventions aiming at improving citizens’ health and wellbeing in cities.
ENLIGHTENme will collect and systematize existing data and good practices on urban lighting and will perform an accurate study on the correlations among health, wellbeing, lighting and socio-economic factors in 3 pilot cities -Amsterdam, Bologna and Tartu, where a target district will be selected due to its exposure to artificial light and to reflect social inequalities. Through the establishment of Lighting Urban Labs within the district, citizens and stakeholders will co-create innovative Lighting Urban Plans measures and define the implementation of a smart outdoor lighting system and indoor lighting changes in a pilot area within the district. There, a population-based study on elderly – addressed as a vulnerable group particularly prone to suffer circadian misalignment – will allow to assess lighting-dependent risks on mental and health conditions and surveys involving the overall district population and users will allow assess the impacts of urban lighting on quality of life and wellbeing.
The results will allow to develop a dedicated Decision Support System and guidelines and recommendation on the impact of lighting on health and wellbeing, proposing innovative lighting policies, measures, technologies and interventions aiming at improving citizens’ health and wellbeing in cities.
The initial part of the project was mainly dedicated to build and systematize the existing knowledge on artificial lighting effects on health and wellbeing. First, a common operational language was defined to support the PBs in exchanging knowledge across different disciplines. Moreover, existing knowledge on lighting effects on health and practices on indoor and outdoor lighting was collected. At present, after a review process, 151 practices have been collected, with 30 of these being geographically referenced. They were included in the ENLIGHTENme Atlas. Data on socio-economic, urban and lighting characteristics, health conditions were collected and systematized for the 3 pilot cities, resulting in 46 indicators, describing and mapping the vulnerability of the cities, represented through urban lighting and health maps. The general vulnerability index allowed to select a short list of more vulnerable districts in each city, whose characteristics where then deepened through the qualitative and population-based studies. Consequently, a vulnerable district was selected in each city according to local situations and opportunities such as lighting system condition, willingness form the local community to participate, percentage of elderly people living in the district.
This selection allows starting the implementation phase in the 3 ENLIGHTENme cities, where the Urban Lighting Labs have been established by involving key local stakeholders and community members, with special regard to elderly people and care givers. A first series of workshops were organized to raise awareness on the correlation among lighting and health and wellbeing and to co-design outdoor lighting solutions more respectful of people wellbeing. This was followed by the implementation of the new lighting systems in the 3 pilot areas. Now a post implementation phase is ongoing where local communities are involved for assessing the impact of the lighting changes occurred on people’s wellbeing through fieldwork and local meetings. Besides a panel of 30 households has been engaged across the 3 cities for being educated and supported in co-designing their domestic lighting.
At the same time, a recruitment roadmap was developed, with the aim of recruiting in the same selected district cohort of older adults for each target district to implement a population based study aimed at providing evidence on the correlation between health related factors and lighting exposure. A huge engagement campaign was launched in the 3 cities with the aim of reaching the target number of participants. It consisted in a massive involvement of local stakeholders (community centres, pharmacies, family doctors, health care centres), local media communications (e.g.: TV and radio, flyering and neighborhood newspapers), local events mediated by the ULLs presenting the study, social media networking. Participants were recruited through rolling recruitment over 1 year period on 5 population subgroups. On the recruited individuals, a baseline was carried out according to an innovative clinical protocol, to assess circadian entrainment, sleep and personal lighting exposure, as well as individual genetic background, mental and physical health status, testing the effects of experimental change of lighting in the target district (indoor 3-month change) and in the pilot area (outdoor 1-year change). 183 people were recruited, a higher number than those reached in similar studies conducted in this field, therefore the consortium is confident to obtain relevant results.
This selection allows starting the implementation phase in the 3 ENLIGHTENme cities, where the Urban Lighting Labs have been established by involving key local stakeholders and community members, with special regard to elderly people and care givers. A first series of workshops were organized to raise awareness on the correlation among lighting and health and wellbeing and to co-design outdoor lighting solutions more respectful of people wellbeing. This was followed by the implementation of the new lighting systems in the 3 pilot areas. Now a post implementation phase is ongoing where local communities are involved for assessing the impact of the lighting changes occurred on people’s wellbeing through fieldwork and local meetings. Besides a panel of 30 households has been engaged across the 3 cities for being educated and supported in co-designing their domestic lighting.
At the same time, a recruitment roadmap was developed, with the aim of recruiting in the same selected district cohort of older adults for each target district to implement a population based study aimed at providing evidence on the correlation between health related factors and lighting exposure. A huge engagement campaign was launched in the 3 cities with the aim of reaching the target number of participants. It consisted in a massive involvement of local stakeholders (community centres, pharmacies, family doctors, health care centres), local media communications (e.g.: TV and radio, flyering and neighborhood newspapers), local events mediated by the ULLs presenting the study, social media networking. Participants were recruited through rolling recruitment over 1 year period on 5 population subgroups. On the recruited individuals, a baseline was carried out according to an innovative clinical protocol, to assess circadian entrainment, sleep and personal lighting exposure, as well as individual genetic background, mental and physical health status, testing the effects of experimental change of lighting in the target district (indoor 3-month change) and in the pilot area (outdoor 1-year change). 183 people were recruited, a higher number than those reached in similar studies conducted in this field, therefore the consortium is confident to obtain relevant results.
Although lighting is geographically ubiquitous and central to the way urban spaces (domestic and public) are used and experienced, it is generally treated as a technical specialism separated from wider planning or allocated to a narrow role. Urban policies and regulations about artificial lighting usually focus on the economic and environmental (in terms of reduced CO2 emissions) aspects of the interventions. ENLIGHTENme novelty lies in the capability to integrate health and wellbeing in urban lighting policies and in the decision-making process, based on evidence from the impact of electric lighting on older adults’ health, wellbeing and social life and thus allowing to develop innovative smart healthy lighting systems able to increase urban quality.
Through the systematization of existing knowledge and good practices at global level, integrated by the evidences gathered through the pilot interventions in the three ENLIGHTENme cities and the capability to represent the correlation between characteristics of urban areas, light exposure, socio-economic characteristics, urban patterns and health and wellbeing distribution at local scale, ENLIGHTENme wants to build more robust evidence about the effects of urban lighting on health, improved elderly population physical and/or mental health in urban areas, thus reducing health inequalities. The establishment of the Urban lighting labs in the three cities fosters the involvement of local stakeholders and citizens in a participatory process together with lighting design experts, urban planners, sociologists and experts on health and mental wellbeing, addressing social practices and inequalities and lighting design in the same process.
Through the systematization of existing knowledge and good practices at global level, integrated by the evidences gathered through the pilot interventions in the three ENLIGHTENme cities and the capability to represent the correlation between characteristics of urban areas, light exposure, socio-economic characteristics, urban patterns and health and wellbeing distribution at local scale, ENLIGHTENme wants to build more robust evidence about the effects of urban lighting on health, improved elderly population physical and/or mental health in urban areas, thus reducing health inequalities. The establishment of the Urban lighting labs in the three cities fosters the involvement of local stakeholders and citizens in a participatory process together with lighting design experts, urban planners, sociologists and experts on health and mental wellbeing, addressing social practices and inequalities and lighting design in the same process.